A NEW STUDY SHOWS that mouth-to-mouth is
not the best way to help someone who has just had a heart
attack. The reason is simple: The blood already contains oxygen,
so simply circulating the blood can revive the heart. But the
chest-compression part of standard CPR doesn't circulate the
blood very well, so when you stop pumping (in order to give mouth-to-mouth),
you are starving the heart and brain of oxygen.

The study compared those who got only chest
compressions with those who got both chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth.
The ones who got chest compression only (without mouth-to-mouth)
were more likely to survive.

It is good news for two reasons: First,
it is much easier to do. It's a much simpler task to only
give chest compressions. And second, once this information is
widely known, bystanders will be more likely to help because
they won't have to risk getting a disease by giving mouth-to-mouth
to a stranger.